Northern Vietnam - Ha Noi

I arrived at my hotel (Do Hotel) around midnight and discovered that due to Tet (Vietnamese New Year), most of the staff were off and no breakfast would be provided.   The receptionist spoke NO English.  My room is a tiny box, no window with a bunk bed.  At least I had booked a private room so no one was going to be moving into the top bunk.

The next morning I got up and went out to talk to the next receptionist.  It was the day before Tet and I wanted to book a couple of tours to the north, Ha Long Bay and Sapa Valley.  But it was the same guy as the night before.  I had a very aggravating conversation but he was not understanding what I was trying to say or what I wanted to do.  He said the English speaking receptionist would be back at 11pm.  Great.


I am in the Old Quarter of the city.  Lots of bars and restaurants and hostels.  I wandered around that first day a bit.  I think your fifth city is like your fifth child.  The first city gets a million photos because everything is new and exciting.  By the fifth, it's like 'Meh.', no photo needed.

Checked my camera, apparently I did like that fifth child enough to break out the camera occasionally.  Lots of New Year traditions that I didn't understand but took pictures of.  Apparently this is the time of year for photos.  Families get all dressed up and take pictures in front of things.  Makes it difficult to walk around but the kids are adorable in their special New Year's outfits.

These are from around Hoan Kiem Lake which is right in the middle of the city, near my hotel.

Getting portraits done

Picture day!

The lake has a temple in the middle attached by a beautiful red bridge.  I couldn't get anywhere near the temple for all of the portraits and posing but it was photogenic from shore

Then a quick stop for coffee.  I tried an iced coconut coffee this time.  It looked weird but it was super tasty.   Better than egg coffee.

Iced coconut coffee

 At some point in the day I came upon a lineup.  It was for the Water Puppet Theatre, famously from Northern Vietnam so I bought a ticket.  I was pretty far back but this theatre brilliantly has boosters!.  Hard pillows that add a few inches.  Yay!   I could see! We need these in Canada.

The stage is a pool

The band

 I think there was a story but I never had a clue what was going on.
It didn't really matter.

I killed some time, probably ate dinner but again, same same, no photo.  The fireworks for the start of New Year were at midnight.  I headed back to the lake around 8:30.

Temple and red bridge at night, even better

City reflected in the lake

Another tradition?  He is writing something in old script for this boy

There was live music.  This was my favourite band, a bunch of old guys, not even
trying to compete with the flashy light shows and sequined singers farther along.

So many ballons, most of the shaped like dogs (for the year of the dog)

Happy New Year - Chuc Mung Nam Moi 2018

This was a kids area

 Oh, yeah, dinner.  I was starving (I didn't eat between lake visits) but amazingly, they had closed the roads around the lake so there wasn't any street food.  The few open restaurants were packed. So I headed away from the lake a block or so beyond the barriers and found a Bahn Mi stand.  You will remember that Bahn Mi are pork sandwiches.  I could see she was barbequing the pork so it looked even better than usual.  So I ordered one so I could head back.  But instead of stuffing the bbq pork into the bun, she grilled the bun and then cut it up into little pieces with scissors.  topped the bun with the pork and then squirted on a red sauce, then mayo, then chili sauce.  Not easy to eat but so much better than the typical Bahn Mi.  Here is a way less appetizing photo than it tasted.

Bahn Mi, deconstructted

Before I found food, I had circumnavigated the lake.  I figured out where the fireworks were going to be shot from.  The lake is completely surrounded by trees so I sussed out where to sit with the best view and the fewest trees.  Bahn Mi in hand, I found my spot and sat barely in time.  The good spots were filling fast.  I had to sit on the cement ground.  I was still so stiff from the park hike the day before but I had over an hour to wait.  I shifted a lot.  And did some people watching.  

The locals brought paper to sit on.  They removed their shoes before sitting.  The guy next to me offered me some of his paper but I just sat on the ground, shoes on.  Just as well, I was a bit of a whirling dervish trying to keep from seizing up.  I listened to the Australian guy behind me on a first date with a very pretty local woman (girl).  There conversation went from casual talk to kissing to him offering to pay for her ticket and accommodation to Australia.   My hooker book has either made me a total cynic (more so than usual) or has opened my eyes to the truth.  Anyway, I assumed she was a working girl who had just hit the jackpot.  Good on her.

Eventually the fireworks started.  Fireworks are much better experienced live than in photos but I did manage to get one good shot reflected in the lake.

(break here to go out for coffee and something to eat  - banana crepe! - then my LAST load of laundry (can it be a 'load' when it is really a bathroom sink full). 

  

As soon as the fireworks ended, everyone (EVERYONE) left the lake area.  What a mash of people!  It took a few minutes for everyone to politely organize themselves into streams going in each direction.

And then I promptly got lost.  Ha Noi Old town is a bit of a maze but mostly the streets keep changing names and they all seem to start with 'Hang'.  Hang Be, HangB ac, Hang Ngang, Hang Gai, Hang Quat, Hang Huan, the Hang streets are endless.  One street changes from Hang Be to Hang Dau to Dinh Tien Hoang in four blocks!  I know this now because I found a map on the street today. But that night, I walked around forever trying to find my street.  

It was dark and there were a million people and fires everywhere.  Which apparently is another New Year's tradition.  Every household seems to take their paper from their ancestor shrine and burn it, on the street.  That added a whole new level of walking while navigating through traffic.  If you get good at a task, add fire for a new challenge - I thought this was for dog shows but apparently also for walking around.

I finally made it back to my hotel.  The English speaking receptionist was on duty.  She said she would try to book me a tour of Ha Long Bay and Sapa but she wasn't sure since everything was closed now.  Which it wasn't when I had the non-English speaking guy but I am trying to be more zen about this. 

Next day was Tet so basically everything was closed.  Plus, I was tired so I had a very lazy day.  I couldn't spend the whole day in my room though so I trekked out to see the Long Bien Bridge.  I figured it was a bridge so it wouldn't be closed.  

I know you love history so here's a bit about the bridge.  It was designed by a certain Mr. Gustov Eiffel.  Built between 1899 and 1902.  It was the first connection between the south and north of Vietnam, over the Red River.  For this fact alone, it was a major target during the American war.  They bombed the crap out of that thing but the Vietnamese kept it open by repairing it basically overnight.  Now it is a symbol of the fortitude and resistance of the people.  But it is crumbling away.  

It is still a train crossing and still open for motorcycles and pedestrians but closed to cars.  They say this is for safety but I think it is really because the lanes are too narrow.    If this was in Canada, it would have been closed to all traffic long ago.  It is literally falling apart. So of course, I crossed it, and then crossed it back again.  It is over a mile long.

Railroad tracks

The moto and pedestrian pathways

The handrail.  

Heading west, looking south, you can see the new bridge that the cars use.  And some river boats. 

This thing is barely holding its own weight but people
are adding extra.  Crazy.

Don't look down while you're walking

There is an island in the river that the bridge crosses over.  The island is used for agriculture so I got to look down and see the farms from above.  Goat!!

Baby pigs

A quick coffee at the only open Ca Phe (I love the spelling here).  Then the view from the other side.  This had the added bonus of wires running along the pedestrian walkway, just because it wasn't scary enough just risking falling into the river from 100 feet up.  Why not add a tripping/electrocuting hazzard!

The sidewalk was even worse on this side too.

Wires!

The dog prints were cute on solid ground but these cement slabs were the
only thing between me and the water so now paw prints were less cute.

Somehow these crazy women had gotten over the rickety barrier,
and a 2 foot open gap to get to the railway tracks (in heals!) for their
New Year's photo.  

I think these giant cement things (?) are part of the reconstruction.
They don't look much sturdier than the existing bridge.

back over solid ground

I was going to try to add Ha Long Bay to this post but I don't think I will.  As usual, this is too long and I have some food to eat/city to explore/shopping to do.